Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It was obvious from the beginning that this global pandemic that a European response was required to meet the unprecedented challenges relating to Covid-19. We therefore welcome this Bill. The support to mitigate unemployment risks in an emergency, SURE, instrument within this Bill provides for €100 billion to be raised on the capital markets by the EU Commission. This will enable member states to temporarily mitigate unemployment risks and it will help us to finance our wage subsidy scheme. It is vitally important that the scheme continues while businesses struggle to operate to full capacity.

Keeping people in employment during this time of uncertainty must be a priority. This was the approach taken in several other European countries. The benefits of a short-term work scheme were seen in Germany during the recent recession. The temporary wage subsidy scheme has been vital in keeping people in work and keeping working relationships intact. The European Investment Bank, EIB, pan-European guarantee fund will provide additional loans to SMEs, mid-caps and corporates affected by Covid-19, but the loans must be interest-free. We must ensure that the money gets to where it is needed most as quickly as possible. Businesses need cash and they need it now.

I welcome the steps that have been taken to date but I am concerned that too many businesses and self-employed people are falling through the gaps. These gaps are becoming more evident as we push through the challenges we continue to face. Small businesses in Mayo continue to close on a daily basis, and we must stop this. Many of these businesses could remain open with proper supports. Grant aid, not loans, is necessary to keep these businesses open until such time as they are able to operate again to their full potential. We bailed out the banks, now we need a bailout for these businesses which have served us so loyally over generations. We need to realise that enabling businesses to stay open, employ people and keep our towns and villages alive makes economic and social sense. It has to be the only show in town. Boarded-up shop fronts, long queues for unemployment benefit and reduced returns for the Exchequer must be avoided at all costs.

Too often in the past, EU administered loans have disproportionately gone to larger companies. Even in the context of the fund under discussion, companies with as many as 3,000 employees can access the loans. Of these loans, 65% will be ring-fenced for SMEs but the category relating to SMEs is broad. Some such enterprises have 250 employees. We have also seen how larger companies are better placed to avail of these funds. They can afford the accountants and financial expertise to draw down large portions of funding available, while smaller businesses and those with only three, five or ten employees do not have the means to do so. I ask that the scheme be strictly monitored in order to ensure that the funds get to where they are needed most and that financial institutions do not capitalise on the backs of struggling businesses. I ask that we do not, as often happens, rely on the sketchy judgment of audit companies that fail to protect our best interests. What measures are being put in place to conduct real-time monitoring of the progress of this scheme so we get the proper outcomes? Can we ensure that companies which benefit from this scheme operate in an ethical manner? It is important to support SMEs of all sizes but we must also recognise the needs of different businesses. SMEs need grant support. This is particularly true of small businesses.

While there are positive elements here, we cannot let them distract from what is really needed, namely, an SME grant scheme that will keep shops in Belmullet, Castlebar and all the other towns across the country open. I am concerned that the necessary finance to keep these businesses open keeps moving out of reach. While businesses hear of there being millions and billions available, they are often told that what is on offer is just not suitable for them. That is why we must aim to fill in these gaps. One business owner described it to me as being like swimming in the deep end of a swimming pool and trying to reach out and grab an edge that keeps moving. We need to get cash into these businesses and we need to do that now, not in a few weeks time or a few months. This Bill allows for that to happen and it is up to us to make it happen in a speedy manner.

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